


Against the Night

by Chicaroscuro



Category: Ghost - Mystery Skulls (Music Video), Mystery Skulls (Band)
Genre: AU, Suicide, ghost!arthur
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-19
Updated: 2014-12-04
Packaged: 2018-02-26 06:18:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2641250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chicaroscuro/pseuds/Chicaroscuro
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two years after Lewis watched his best friend step into nothing, the Mystery Skulls go back.</p>
<p>( entirely because of <a href="http://soaringsparrows.tumblr.com/post/102568021780">this</a> )</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

It’s two years before they return.

There are reports of something in the forest, unknown and hostile, preying on those who enter at night. Many have been found unconscious just past the treeline, with no memory of what happened to them. A few unlucky souls have been found still inside the woods, dead. The Mystery Skulls were asked to investigate. If business were better, maybe they would have refused; Lewis’s stomach twisted painfully just hearing the name of the town, and he and Vivi held each other that night in silence. But things have been bad lately, and to be frank they simply need the money.

“We don’t have to go back there,” Vivi reminds them both, as they drive into the evening. “The cave’s on the other side of the woods. We’ll just...we’ll just investigate on the border.” Lewis knows his knuckles are white on the wheel, and she’s probably worried about him, but he can’t pull himself together enough to respond. His thoughts are mired deep in the past.

What could he have done? Was there anything? He’d noticed Arthur had seemed out of sorts in the days leading up to...to what happened. But he’d figured it was just because he and Vivi had just started dating. As far as he _knew_ , Arthur hadn’t had feelings for her himself, but Lewis knew that they’d definitely been a little...well, absorbed in each other, to the exclusion of their best friend. He definitely hadn’t been spending nearly as much time with Arthur as usual. If he had, would he have realized something was wrong? Could he have said something to stop him?

They’re all questions he’s asked himself endlessly since he watched his best friend kill himself. He knows Vivi must ask herself the same. As far as he knows, she has no more answers than him.

The forest feels too familiar when they arrive. Vivi was right, they’re nowhere near that cave, but Lewis remembers passing under these trees. Vivi links her arm around his and they stand near the van, watching Mystery sniff around. The little white dog’s always had a good nose for the supernatural; after Arthur died, ghost hunting was about the only thing that would even make him move. After a few moments, he looks up towards the trees and gives a low whine deep in his throat, before trotting forward without a backwards glance.

Lewis clicks his flashlight on and takes a deep breath. “Let’s go, gang.”

He keeps Vivi’s hand in his as they pick carefully through the underbrush, trying not to let Mystery get out of sight. Normally he’s good about letting them follow, but he’s smaller than they are and has no problem weaving his way through the brush. “I wonder what he’s got?” Lewis whispers. “He doesn’t usually just take off like that.”

“I’m not sure.” Vivi tugs him to the side, around a patch of thorny vines. “He’s not growling.” She’s got her hand to her neck, though, against the protective charm she wears. She doesn’t have to tell him to stay close.

A scream pierces through the shadows, and they fly to each other’s sides without thinking. Ahead of them, Mystery snarls and takes off into the dark.

“Shit!” Vivi’s the first to take off after him, dragging a still-startled Lewis along behind her. “That sounded human!” There wasn’t supposed to be anyone else out here, not during their investigations - but then, who was supposed to be keeping people out? The screaming hasn’t stopped, it’s echoing around them and bouncing off trees until Lewis is no longer certain which direction it’s even coming from, but Vivi’s still got an eye on Mystery and she’s pulling him along after her. Branches whip him in the face, and he hears a faint tearing sound as a vine snags on his ascot, but he yanks free and follows. Over Vivi’s head, he can see a faint glow ahead, like a campfire.

The screaming stops.

Vivi stops too, and fumbles with her flashlight before flicking it off. Lewis stumbles to a halt a few paces behind her, and covers his light with a broad palm before finding the off switch. Suddenly the only light in the forest is the fire ahead, and he’s completely blind. He tries not to make any sound as he moves to her side, feeling about for her hand and squeezing it silently. She squeezes back.

As his eyes start to adjust, he can see what she saw: Mystery stopped dead between two trees, crouching and peering out into what looks like a small clearing. But that’s not why she stopped. Because now that the screaming is over, he realizes that he can hear a voice, just ahead of them.

**“Geez, and I thought _I_ was loud.” ** It’s a man’s voice, he thinks, but it echoes as if the speaker were standing on the other end of a tunnel. No human voice sounds like that. But at the same time, something about it tugs at him.

Whoever or whatever it is, they don’t seem to realize they aren’t alone. It sounds like they’re talking to themselves. **“Okay, c’mon, lady,”** he says, and Lewis sees Mystery shift forward. Vivi nudges him in the side, and he nods in agreement before they both start to creep forward. It’s impossible to move silently in the forest; leaves and twigs crunch with each combined step, but it only takes a few to bring them alongside Mystery.

There is no campfire. There is a skeleton floating in the clearing, flames licking along its body and shooting up from its bare skull. It’s half-turned towards them, but its attention seems to be mainly on the unconscious woman in its arms. She can’t be more than a few years older than Lewis, but her skin is too pale and her head lolls limply as the ghost holding her moves. Around one of its skeletal hands is wrapped a thick length of rope, and as it turns as if to come towards them, Lewis realizes it’s tied into a noose.

Lewis lets go of Vivi’s hand, reaching for his container of salt. But Mystery starts barking, and the ghost looks up. There’s orange flames floating in its eye sockets, searching the trees, and they quickly light on the two ghost-hunters half-hidden in the brush. As Lewis meets their gaze, everything suddenly falls into place, and he sees the shape of the flames on that skull, the skinny limbs looking out-of-place in a strange formal suit, the way the ghost still draws back and hunches slightly when startled by even something as small as a dog leaping out of the forest.

_“Arthur?”_ It’s Vivi’s voice, not his, breathing out a name that still sticks in his throat. She steps forward and he follows, but his eyes aren’t on her anymore. They’re on the restless, burning soul of his best friend.

**“Vivi? Lewis?”** Mystery is still barking, tail wagging as he circles Arthur, but the ghost’s eyes are wide and he tries to dodge away. **“Ohhhh, nonono, you guys can’t _be_ here! What are you _doing?_ ”**

“What are _you_ doing?” Vivi responds, her voice on the edge of hysteria. She still hasn’t left Lewis’s side, still keeping some distance between their old friend. Lewis wants to approach, or at least deny the suspicion he knows she’s voicing for both of them, but the woman in Arthur’s arms is too still. “Arthur, who is that?”

**“Her?”** Arthur... _blinks,_ or at least the lights of his eyes flicker, and he follows Vivi’s gaze down to the woman. **“Oh, she’s fine, I was just taking her outta here. You...”** He looks between them, eyes narrowed, and Lewis realizes with a pang that he knows what they were both thinking. No accusations come, though, just **“You can check if you want, I guess?”**

He bobs lower, so that his feet actually brush the ground. Vivi swallows, also looking a bit guilty, but moves nonetheless to check the woman’s pulse. Lewis steps forward as well, but his eyes are on Arthur, who is watching him as well.

**“There’s something out here,”** he says. His voice is still strange, but now that Lewis understands who it is, he can pick up on the undercurrent of nerves. He used to be good at reading Arthur’s moods, but now all he has is a tense ghostly voice to go by. **“I don’t know what. It used to be in the cave, but it left there when I did...I...I think it might have followed me.”** The words come in a guilty rush. Lewis’s brow furrows; what on earth has _Arthur_ got to feel guilty for? _He’s_ the one who should feel bad, he’s the one who let his friend die right in front of him. At his side, Vivi looks up as well; he takes her silence to mean that the woman’s alright after all. **“It gets in people’s heads, makes them do...things they regret.”**

The sadness in Arthur’s voice makes Lewis’s chest ache, and he doesn’t even hear whatever Vivi asks in response.

This is all his fault. Why didn’t he do something? Arthur died because of his own selfishness, and now his spirit can’t even move on. Arthur didn’t deserve this. If anyone did, it was _Lewis._ Arthur is still talking, but Lewis finds his gaze drawn to the noose still dangling from his friend’s bony hand.

_A life for a life,_ something in the back of his mind whispers. _It would be easy. Do it for him._ Numbly, Lewis stretches out a hand, reaching for the rope...

**“Woah!”** Arthur’s loud voice snaps Lewis back to himself, and he steps back at the same time as the ghost recoils, clutching the noose back against his chest. **“Dude, don’t DO that! That’s exactly what I was just talking about! Shit, you’re gonna give me a heart attack!”**

“Lewis?” Vivi’s clutching at his arm, dragging him down so that she can cup his face in her hands. “Are you okay? Say something Lewis-y!” she demands, peering into each of his eyes in turn.

“I - I’m fine,” he stammers back, blinking hard, trying to find the words. “I was just...I don’t know, I just...”

**“Forget it, buddy. You’re better off just not thinking about it too hard.”** Arthur clenches his fist, focusing, and the flames on his body leap into a sudden towering inferno. When they die down a second later, the noose has crumbled to ashes. **“Trust me, that’s not a good path to walk. It wasn’t really you anyway, just...just don’t, okay?”**

“Arthur, this _isn’t_ the kind of thing we’re going to just _not talk about,”_ Vivi snaps back. She seems satisfied that Lewis is okay, anyway, and lets him stand up straight again. Lewis himself is not so sure, but he also knows that he’s not the one who needs to be worried about here. He never was.

“Arthur,” he says, his first words since seeing his friend again, “why are you still here? Are you...are you trapped? Can we help you?” Is it because he killed himself that he can’t move on?

**“No...I mean, _yeah,_ but...” **The ghost huffs, light flaring briefly. **“Y’know what, no. It knows you guys are here now, I don’t want you sticking around. Let’s walk and talk, gang, walk and talk.”**

And he sails right on past them into the trees. **“Stick close! No splitting up this time or I swear to god.”**

“Arthur!” Lewis scrambles after him, Vivi on his heels. It isn’t hard to catch up; he’s deliberately going slowly, and the woman in his arms seems to be keeping him from phasing his body through the trees. “Arthur, _please,_ let us help you! I’m, I...I’m so _sorry,_ please - “

**“For what?”**

Lewis has gone over what he would say if he ever had the chance a million times. It all goes out of his head immediately. “What?”

Arthur’s smirk is somehow audible. **“Sorry for what?”**

“For...for not _helping_ you!” Lewis sputters. Isn’t it obvious? Arthur was the one who suffered the _most_ for his failure - it was Lewis’s fault. Why else would Arthur choose to jump right in _front_ of him? “Whatever you were going through, we should’ve been there for you. _I_ should have been there for you!”

**“Oh, _Lewis._ Dude.” **Arthur stops up short, turning to look at him. The way he’s floating now, they’re actually eye-level with each other for once. **“It’s okay, man. I didn’t kill myself. _Well - “_** he adds, **“ - I _did_. But not because I really wanted to.”**

“He said there’s something in these woods,” Vivi adds in an undertone to Lewis. “Something that...that drives people to suicide. You were - “

**“He wasn’t listening, because he was _definitely_ getting affected by the suicide demon, so if we could maybe move this talk _outside_ the woods, that’d be pretty sweet. This lady’s gonna wake up anyway, kiiiiinda doubt she wants to see _me_ first thing.”**

That’s definite anxiety in Arthur’s voice now. He’d be drumming his fingers on his leg or something by now, eyes darting around nervously. Lewis saw this a hundred times, dragging his friend into haunted house after haunted house. “Okay,” he says, in his calm-Arthur-down tone. “It’s okay, we’re almost out. I can practically see the van from here. We’ll go over there and talk.”

**“I can’t.”**

“Arthur.” Vivi crosses her arms. “You are _coming_ to the van with us.”

**“Woah, hey, I’d _like_ to, Viv! Honestly - Lew, man, can you take her?” **He leans forward, transferring the unconscious woman to Lewis’s arms. She’s not heavy at all; Lewis barely notices her, compared to the surprising heat radiating from his friend’s body. **“I’m stuck here. I’ve tried to get out of these woods a ton of times, but I can’t.”** He turns to look back, one hand gravitating to the green heart beating against his chest. **“Maybe it’s just one of those things, y’know? I mean, suicides, they say - “**

He sounds suddenly as if he might start to cry. “No,” Lewis interrupts. He doesn’t want to know if ghosts can shed tears. “No, we’re going to figure this out. You’re coming with us.”

“That’s right,” Vivi agrees. “Maybe not tonight, but we’ll be back. Meet us here tomorrow, and be ready to tell us _everything_ you know about this demon, okay? Lewis, you have books on that?”

“Of course.” It’s just like preparing for any mission - Vivi pulling them together, Lewis digging into the research, and Arthur...

Arthur off by himself again.

Shifting the woman’s weight awkwardly, Lewis reaches out to catch Arthur by the wrist. He’s in his burial best, but somehow he’s _still_ wearing those ridiculous wristwarmers he loved so much. No, _loved_ isn’t the right word, is it? _Loves._ “We _are_ coming back,” he says, and tries not to think about how thin his bones are. “And if you don’t meet us, we’re coming in after you.”

**“Ohhh. Can’t have _that,_ right?” **Arthur doesn’t smile. Arthur _can’t_ smile anymore. But the flames around his skull burn a bit brighter, and his glowing pupils flicker into something that looks pleased. **“Guess I’d better then, god knows I can’t leave _you_ two alone for twenty seconds.”**

“Yeah.” Lewis’s smile is strained, and he glances down at Vivi - for what, he doesn’t know. Reassurance? She lays a hand on the small of his back. 

“Come on.” Her voice is quiet, and he can tell that she doesn’t want to leave any more than he does. But Vivi will make sure they do what must be done. “She needs to get checked out. Let’s get to the hospital.”

Lewis takes a deep breath and nods. “Yeah. Okay. I promise we’ll be back, Arthur.”

**“I know.”** Lewis turns to leave, and there’s a ghostly chuckle from behind him. **“I guess Mystery’s staying, anyway. You always DID like me best, huh boy?”**

He doesn’t have to look back to know that Mystery is sitting by Arthur’s side again. Just like he always did. And soon enough, they’ll _all_ be together again, just like they were meant to be.

They’re going to fix this. With all four of them again, suddenly it seems like there's nothing they can't do.


	2. Chapter 2

The living Mystery Skulls do not sleep that night.

In the back of his mind, Lewis feels a little guilty for not staying at the hospital to make sure that lady would be okay. But there was far too much research to do, and it would take both of them. There wasn’t really anything they could do anyway, right?

So he and Vivi return to the motel room. He settles at the tiny table, hastily-selected books stacked around him, while she curls up on the bed with her laptop and a few blankets. It’s a familiar routine. It could almost be an ordinary night of case preparation, if not for the fact that Lewis can still hear his heart pounding in his ears.

Luckily, Vivi knows when to break a silence. “Lew? I’ve got the old case files from the last time we were here, if you want a copy.”

“You kept those?”

“Well...” Usually, she printed out case files, kept them all in folders in the van along with pictures, brochures, mementos of the adventures they’d had there. Lewis has never seen a folder about the cave. “I couldn’t just _delete_ it.”

“No, no, of course. I think I remember it all, but I’ll let you know if I want a look.”

Vivi hums assent, and the room falls quiet again. Lewis chews on his lip and narrows his eyes down at the passage in front of him. _Spiritual cleansing with sage is done for protection against evil and negativity..._

The cheap fluorescent lights buzz above. This is just like a million other dumps they’ve stayed at; the room could just as easily belong in Kansas, or Washington, or Maine. Maybe it’s silly to expect it to feel different. Hotels don’t redecorate just because someone died near the town.

Lewis shakes his head and tries to turn his focus back on the book. _Spiritual cleansing with sage is done for protection against evil and negativity..._

...he sighs and shuts the book. “Vivi? This is going to sound weird, but can you just...confirm for me that that really just happened?”

“Went into the woods, met Arthur as a fiery skeleton ghost - which is TOTALLY awesome, I wish I’d told him that - and now we’re gonna help him kill some kinda evil thingy?” She glances up at him over her glasses. “If that’s what you’re thinking, then yep.”

“Okay. Just, uh...” Lewis spends a second searching for the words, before giving up. “Just checking.”

“Hey.” Shifting the computer to her lap, Vivi scoots over and pats the bedspread next to her. “C’mere, come look at this with me.”

He joins her, and she snuggles into his shoulder, twining one arm around his and gesturing at the screen with the other. “So we were first called out here to investigate this cave, right? I guess it used to be called Owl Cave, but now everyone calls it Greenwood Cave? Which makes total sense. Anyway, it had a history of weird disappearances...”

Lewis leans his head against her hair as he listens, noting the way she easily sidesteps the fact that Arthur was the first person to actually _die_ in the cave for decades. That fact was how they’d convinced him to enter in the first place. He knows all this already; how could he forget _anything_ about that fatal case? But he appreciates her walking him through it again, anchoring him with her voice. Normally he isn’t this spacey. Research is his _thing._ It’s just that he can hardly believe everything that happened - Arthur’s still _here,_ he didn’t deliberately choose to die, there’s still something they can do to _finally save him_. He wouldn’t be surprised if he woke to find it all a dream.

“I did a little more digging,” Vivi continues as she scrolls to the end of the old file, an abrupt cut-off with no conclusion or notes. “There’s actually _more_ information on it out there now. I guess people got interested after...anyway, some of the people at the local historical society posted some stuff.” She clicks over to another window, a scan of an old black-and-white photo. In it, fifteen people wearing long white robes stand close together, their faces obscured by round wooden masks. “There was a weird religious group that met out there a long time ago. _Well,_ a cult. It was definitely a cult, who wears creepy masks like that?”

The Mystery Skulls don’t encounter cults all that frequently, but they’ve certainly seen a few more than normal people would. “You think they may have done something?” Lewis asks, his mind flashing back to old leather-bound books, runes meant to be traced in chalk or worse. “A summoning, maybe?”

“Could be. I mean, that’d make _sense,_ right? All the recorded disappearances were after that.” She clicks a few more links on the website. “Same with that green glow it had, that doesn’t come up in any descriptions until after they’d been out there for a while. I don’t know what happened to them, this doesn’t even have any of their names. Maybe it got them, and then just stuck around?”

“There _could_ have been things before that just didn’t get recorded,” Lewis doesn’t really think that’s the case though. “Is there anything else? Maybe what they actually worshipped?”

“No, just a lot of stuff about local church leaders disapproving.” Vivi reads a few paragraphs and snorts. “ _Really_ disapproving. This calls them pagan devil-worshippers.”

“That doesn’t really narrow it down.” Lewis leans back, draping an arm over Vivi’s shoulder. “Which says a lot about our lives.”

Vivi giggles. “You love it. Anyway, it’s not like we don’t know how getting rid of demons works. Maybe this won’t be so hard after all.” It’s true; they’ve done things like that before, if never quite on this scale. Even Arthur would probably have known how to do a basic exorcism, provided he could calm down for long enough, but being dead doesn’t exactly lend itself to going shopping for chalk and candles.

“I think we have some stuff in the car. We can pick up extra salt tomorrow.” Lewis glances at the window, where the faint gray light of dawn peeks through the thin curtains. “Today.”

“We’ve gotta make sure not to exorcise Art too,” Vivi points out.

There’s a moment of silence, as they both consider that point. “God,” she says finally. “I can’t believe he’s been there all this time. But he seemed to be doing...I mean, not _okay._ But okay-ish?”

“I know what you mean.” Two years alone. In the place where he had died, with the thing that had killed him. Arthur had always gotten twitchy after spending even a couple hours by himself; Lewis had always figured that was part of the reason he kept coming with them on their ghost-hunts, even though it was obvious to everybody how much those stressed him out. He was a little jumpy just by nature, but nothing scared him in quite the way the paranormal did.

He must have been terrified when he became a ghost himself. It seems like a near miracle that he’s functional at all, that he hasn’t had some kind of nervous breakdown by now. “I mean, it sounded like he’s been keeping busy. Trying to keep people safe.”

“Yeah...” Vivi sounds uncertain, and he understands why. It’s a good cause and everything, but that’s a huge responsibility for one pair of shoulders - not to mention, they’d heard reports about deaths before they came. Arthur didn’t tell them, but they _already_ know he hasn’t been entirely successful. “We need to get him out of there,” she says, her voice hard. “Whatever else happens, he’s leaving with us.”

Lewis doesn’t respond, just pulls her closer. They fall asleep there, huddled together and surrounded by notes and research.

 

\---

 

They sleep the day away, and don’t leave for the forest until the sky is already fading from blue to black. This time, Lewis pulls the van as close to the treeline as he can park it.

Everything is dark when he gets out. The shadows stretch beneath the tangled branches of the trees, uninterrupted by firelight. He and Vivi glance uncertainly at each other. Should they venture into the woods alone? Ordinarily neither of them would question it: them, who walk into haunted buildings on a regular basis. But Lewis remembers the haze in his mind, and he can see the memory of the noose in Vivi’s.

They both turn back to the woods, and don’t look at each other for a few minutes.

“He _said_ he’d come,” Lewis points out when the silence stretches too long. “If he says he will, he will.”

“Maybe he got held up? What if - “ Vivi’s interrupted by a loud bark. She drops to her knees with a short laugh of relief, just in time to intercept Mystery as he bounds out of the underbrush.

He’s alone, but a second later a hovering, flickering ball of light appears before them. It glows bright, turning white-hot and searing for a moment, before resolving into the shape of Arthur. **“Hey, dudes.”** Despite the dramatic entrance, he looks as normal as a flaming skeletal phantom can look. He’s almost brushing the ground, and his hands are stuffed into his pockets as he looks up at Lewis. It’s only a second before his gaze darts away again. **“Uh, if you’ve got some food for him, that’d - oh my god, you still have her?”**

He brightens and floats over to the van - which after all _was_ once _his_ van. Lewis grins and follows. “Of course we do.” Quietly, he makes a mental note: dim flames mean a nervous Arthur. He’ll teach himself these cues; they’ll be important for when they’re all traveling again.

**“Not been giving you any trouble? Let me - oh. Oh wow.”** He pops the hood and peers inside, then immediately shatters the illusion of normalcy by phasing his hands right into the machinery. **“Uh, don’t take this the wrong way, man, but have _you_ been trying to fix her?”**

“Boys! Not now!” The back doors slam open as Vivi hops in, probably looking for Mystery’s food bowl. “We’re here to fight demons, not play with the van!”

**“Oh. Ha. Right.”** Arthur crosses his arms tight over his chest. That didn’t last long. **“Youuuu’re still wanting to do that.”**

“Come on, Arthur, of _course_ we are,” Lewis repeats. As much as he wishes they could just hang out here and catch up, he knows that it’ll be better on everyone if they just do what they came for, as early as they can. Celebrations can come later. “We’ve got a plan and everything. We even stopped at a church on the way and got some holy water.”

“We took it from one of those little hand-washy things!” calls Vivi’s voice from the back. “We can never go back there!”

“Right. That - that happened. Anyway, we figure even if you somehow get caught in the crossfire, you should be fine. You’re not a _malicious_ spirit. But that’s only for defending ourselves if we get attacked. The _main_ thing is the banishing circle in the cave.”

**“The cave.”** Arthur’s voice is flat. **“You want to go back. To the cave. The _death_ cave.”**

“We’re pretty sure whatever it is got summoned there.” Vivi circles around front and slams the hood down, jumping up to sit on it as Arthur darts out of her way. She’s grabbed her backpack, and she pulls out the photo of the cult members to wave at him. “We’ll just go down there, de-summon it, problem solved! We’ve got the scripts all written up and everything!”

**“We are _not_ going there.”**

“We _are,_ though!” Anyone who thought Vivi was too small and cute for ghost hunting had clearly never seen her attempt to stare down a ghost hovering almost three feet above her head.

It’s adorable, but this is more tension than Lewis is comfortable with; he raises his hands and steps between the two. “Okay, stop.” How to defuse this? They both have incredibly valid points, even if he’s already on board with Vivi’s plan. “Listen - Arthur, I know you don’t want to go back there.”

**“Don’t _want_ to?” **Arthur yelps. **“I _literally died_ in that cave, you guys. It’s not a good place!”**

“I know!” Lewis breathes out a quick breath. “I know. But it’s the only way we know of to destroy the thing that _killed_ you, and to get you unbound from this place. I - “ He stops, breathes again. This isn’t about him. He doesn’t need to feel guilty about not helping Arthur anymore, even if the memory still twists his stomach in knots. “You can’t keep doing this,” he says finally, quiet.

“Art, c’mon.” Vivi’s calmed down now that there’s no one to actively butt heads with, and she reaches up to lay a hand on Arthur’s pant leg. The fact that she succeeds at all is impressive. “We wanna help you. You being the flaming ghostly guardian of this forest _is_ one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen, but it’s not fair for you to just be _stuck_ here forever. It killed you too.”

They fall into silence. Lewis and Vivi look at Arthur, and Arthur doesn’t look at anyone. He just stares at his hands, twisting one of the wristbands around bone. Mystery barks from behind the van, and there’s a clatter before he runs around, jumping and barking again at Arthur.

**“Fine.”** Arthur doesn’t even try to hide his displeasure. **“Fine. But you’re not walking, you’re taking the van. The road we used last time is _just_ fine.” **And, arms crossed, he phases into the van.

 

**\---**

 

The trip passes in silence.

Normally Arthur would be the one to demand the radio, but he’s floating in the back, stewing and only half-visible. Vivi, meanwhile, is reading over her notes one more time. Lewis sees her lips moving as she mouths the ritual chants to herself, and wishes he could be doing the same.

At least Mystery seems happy.

**“Okay,”** Arthur says when they get out, decisively looking at them and _not_ at the cave mouth. **“This time, _no splitting up._ Seriously.”**

“Absolutely none,” Lewis promises. He, for one, can’t seem to rip his eyes _away_ from the cave. The green glow seems much more subtle than he recalls, but it’s definitely still there. This is the place. It’s vital that they do this here - and now that they’ve arrived, he wishes more than anything that it weren’t. His mouth is dry, and he can feel his heart pounding in his head. Is this what Arthur felt like _every time_ they visited a haunted place?

If so, he’s been an even worse friend than he knew. So he isn’t going to let that fear stop him now. Vivi slips her arm around his again, and he tries to smile for her as the four of them walk together into the cave.

This time, they really _are_ sticking close. Arthur may actually phase right into Lewis if he gets any closer, but Lewis doesn’t really want to say anything. He’s actually grateful for the orange light, driving out the tinges of green that shade this place. On Arthur’s right, Mystery stalks with his head low and his ears pinned back, scanning the area as they move. “Sometimes he really looks bigger than he is,” Lewis comments, nudging Arthur lightly in the ribs.

It’s just something to break the silence, but it makes the ghost crack a small smile. **“Yeah, he’s always thought he’s a big dog. Like a Great Dane or something.”** Lewis returns the smile, and Vivi chuckles next to him. For a moment, things are normal.

Then Arthur looks up and blanches.

Lewis does too, and his heart leaps into his throat.

Here it is. One tunnel going up, the other going down. The crossroads, where they had last parted as a whole team.

“Come on.” Vivi presses her body against his and shoves with all her weight, moving him to the right. “Don’t look, don’t think about it. We’re going this way.” She means well, Lewis knows, but the other path isn’t exactly much better. The tunnel is short and straight, and he can see the thick rocky bases of the stalagmites in the chamber ahead. “I know,” she says to his silent look, speaking almost in a whisper, and he realizes that she does. That’s where she was when it happened. She saw him hit, and she’s still walking in. Why can’t he do the same?

**“Guys. Guys, I don’t think I can do this.”**

Arthur floats out of the way. His eyes are small, bright dots of white-yellow, and his flames of his hair have almost gone out entirely. He’s shaking. **“Seriously, I can’t do this.”** Lewis didn’t even know ghosts _could_ shake.

Vivi sighs. It isn’t quite her old sigh of exasperation at Arthur; she’s not cruel. “Boys. I know how you feel. I really, really do. But we _have_ to do this. We’re already here, we might as well go through with it now. We’ll just...go and get it over with, okay?”

**“And what if it gets _us_ over with?” **Arthur asks, crossing his arms. After a moment, his shoulders slump. **“Gets _you_ over with. _I’m_ probably fine, I’m not even sure what else _can_ happen to me.” **

Lewis trades a look with Vivi. There are definitely things that could happen to him. They’ve _done_ those things to other, less friendly spirits. But now doesn’t really seem to be the time for talking about that. “Okay, I’m not gonna lie. Something’s _probably_ going to happen,” Vivi says. “But if it does, you can help! You’re like the Human Torch now or something.”

“You’re a firebender,” Lewis offers too, trying to push his own discomfort aside. Arthur’s the one who actually got _impaled,_ he’s got more right to be nervous than anyone.

It isn’t as though he really thinks that Arthur might leave them to do this alone. He never did that when he was alive. Lewis doubts he was ever quite as frightened as he seems to be about returning to the spot of his own death, but he’d also been a lot more vulnerable back then. A lot less experienced. The ghost holds up a hand, conjuring a flame in his palm and studying it for a moment, and Lewis again wonders what exactly he’s been through over the past two years.

**“Yeah,”** he somehow sighs without actually breathing. **“Okay, you’re right. I guess - let’s just go and do it. I know you guys would just go on without me anyway, and it’s not like either of _you_ can shoot fireballs.”**

Lewis isn’t sure what to say to that. Is it more comforting to say that they wouldn’t leave him behind, or that they’d let him stay in the van for _real_ this time if he was too upset? He can’t decide, so he doesn’t say any of those things, simply reaches up to lay a hand on Arthur’s shoulder. It’s still too skinny, but warm despite everything. “I promise this’ll be quick.”

He shouldn’t make that promise. He doesn’t _know_ that it’ll be anything. How can he, without knowing exactly what the cultists summoned into this cave so long ago? All he knows is that he and Vivi both will do anything in their power to end this _tonight_.

“Great. Come, Mystery!” Vivi turns to lead the way down the tunnel, and Mystery follows close at her heels. It’s not really splitting up, but Lewis still picks up his pace. He’s nervous about them getting too far apart here. He knows what she’s doing - she’s getting in first, making sure everything really _is_ clear. She did that before when Arthur panicked, because Lewis was both more comforting and less confident in his ability to face a roomful of spirits alone. He just hasn’t seen her take that role up for a long time. For the past two years they’ve always moved through their cases together, always holding hands or linking arms, as if letting go might make the other vanish forever.

The firelight brightens as Arthur falls in alongside him. He’s floating at about Lewis’s height again, feet dangling above the ground. Somehow, it looks entirely natural. **“You okay?”** he asks quietly, his voice sounding a little less echoing. **“You’re not looking so hot.”**

“Neither are you.” Lewis looks meaningfully at Arthur’s skull, until he catches on and reignites his hair with a nervous chuckle.

**“Oh. Yeah. You wouldn’t believe how long it took me to get the hang of that.”**

Lewis thinks he probably would. Arthur must have been bored out of his mind, stuck in the woods out here. More than that, though, the hair is the only way they really recognized him at first. It’s the one thing that still really makes him look like himself. What was it like without it? “It’s pretty neat. How - “

He stumbles as Arthur suddenly grabs his shoulder, pulling him to a halt. **“Stop. Vivi! Stop!”**

Vivi is only a few paces ahead, but she freezes at his word. “What?”

**“It - “** The flames grow higher as Arthur peers around. Even Mystery has stopped, and the only sound beyond Arthur’s voice is the water slowly dripping from stalactites. It sizzles as it touches Arthur, but he doesn’t notice. **“I don’t know, something just... _happened._ Didn’t you feel it?”**

“Noooo...” Vivi glances to Lewis, and he nods in confirmation. He felt cold, a little wet, and _very_ uneasy, but he was sure he hadn’t felt anything else.

“You must be sensing something we aren’t,” he tells Arthur. None of the books he’s ever read are very clear on exactly what powers ghosts possess. Most of them weren’t written by people who actually met and talked to ghosts. He suspects now that they would have talked about fire a lot more if they had. But it makes sense that Arthur could pick up on supernatural phenomena now. “You knew where to find people in the woods, didn’t you? Is it like that?”

**“...no. No.”** Arthur shakes his head and floats back the way they came a little. He isn’t running, though; he’s just staring up at the ceiling. **“I don’t know how to describe it. It’s like...”** A water droplet hits him right in the eye socket, and his voice cuts off as he shakes his head wildly. **“Shit! Oh man, that feels _weird!_ Where is that water even _coming_ from?” **

Lewis just _knows_ Vivi is stifling giggles behind him. He’s just about to turn and give her a look when the floor shakes slightly. Water spatters to the ground. He reaches out to balance himself against the wall, as Arthur flinches and darts closer to him. “We need to get out of here,” he says, reaching a hand back for Vivi’s. “I know what we agreed, but there’s not much we’ll be able to do if it drops a _cave -_ “

This time, the whole tunnel quakes. He hears Vivi yelp and hit the ground behind him, but more than that he hears a sudden roaring, first above and then below and then all around him as the floor drops out from underneath him and he falls, out of the halo of flickering orange light and into darkness.

He hears his friends screaming, and then he hears nothing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YOU WANTED A CONTINUATION
> 
> WELL YOU GOT ONE 8D


End file.
